To Rescue Silverstar

Seabass

Seabass

Adept

***This message is obfuscated in shadow to those who are allies of Dragonreach. No one else is capable of comprehending this posted message or any replies within this thread***​


Heroes,

As per our agreement with your aid to the barony of Thorncryf I have spent the last fortnight spying and accumulating data on the Thrister encampment in the Shieldbearer mountains. The King himself has ordered that the time of action to rescue this warhero and warrior of the people is now. We will meet in less than a week’s time to do just that.

I have a cartographer creating a detailed map of the area from my notes. It will be ready, and I will present it to you on the morning of the 15th. I will meet you north of Stonerest and take you to an abandoned outpost where you can stage your attack from. Come prepared.

The following are my findings:


  • The Shieldbearer Mountains
    • The mountains themselves have an anomaly effect to them I cannot fully explain. There are some dwarven ruins in the area with active rune magic that I have little understanding of. It is clear that some sort of tribal ritual dragon magic has been taking place as well. There are two different rituals taking place in the mountains on platforms. Thanks to three different kind of glyph columns travel powers of any kind are inert. More info on them below. Thanks to finding the “safest” paths travel by foot will not be impossible.

    • There are native monsters in the Shieldbearers that must be considered. In the last few weeks I have witnessed Ice Minotaur and Basilisks. No path can perfectly prevent you from running into these monsters.

    • The environment is cold, sharp, and dangerous.
  • The Thrister Valley
    • The Thirster camp sprawls in a high valley. There is only one clear road up the mountains to the Thirster valley. A pseudo basecamp/guard post about a third of the way up the trail acts as a supply depot. This is as far as full sized carts can travel, after that two wheeled carts and individually carried supplies of blood must be taken the rest of the way.
  • Three guarded entrances
    • There is a main set of true gates that appear to be all that is left from some old ruins. If the gate guard is taking out, stone pillars just after the gate would provide cover to assassins to kill the sleeping Thrister reserves.

    • Another guarded entrance on the southern side near their armory. Both entrances are guarded by squads of their youngest members. The guards change out at 1pm and 1am. There is no contact between them and the rest of the camp save for the changing of the guard.

    • The third “entrance” is a rolling set of hills from an ancient rock slide. The terrain is smooth enough in areas that an approach to the south up into the mountain, then toward the eastern rise of the valley could be used to walk down the semi-smooth slide into the camp. This entrance is not guarded as it is central to the camp and behind the gates. It is used by the shamans to gain access to a goat path leading north up past the valley to the ritual platforms and the crest of the waterfall.
  • Blood Shipments
    • There is a dragon blood shipment once a day, the guards at the gate often give trouble to the shipment party, as they can't control themselves well. The shipments are the most important thing, if one fails to arrive at it scheduled time of noon one elite team is dispatched to get another by 2pm. There are two such teams in reserve for shipment issues and home defense.
  • Patrols
    • There are scouting parties run sorties around the camp in 12 hours shifts that cycle at 1pm and 1am. A total of three scouting parties are active at at time. They follow certain paths in a certain area, but will divert to engage any disturbance.
  • The Spider-Rune Cave
    • There is a spider cave that leads into the valley from the West. It seems to be full of rune magic which responded harshly to my presence. These runes suppressed all magic of any type. The exit of this cave leads to drop just above and to the right of where Silverstar is kept. It can easily get invaders in, but not out. The climb would be too much even when not under assault.
  • The River
    • They get their water from a waterfall leading into the valley. The water can be easily accessed further north, but it comes dangerously close to a ritual platform near by.
  • Silverstar
    • Silverstar is guarded by one of two groups of powerful guards, these are 12 hours shifts. These are not the same Elite troops that concern themselves with the blood, I believe they are less powerful. He is kept at the back of the camp against the mountain wall.

    • Something is wrong with the man. He is looking fairly draconic, and does not appear to be terribly injured. He is healed when blood is taken. He is fed quite often by the head shaman but appears almost completely unresponsive.

    • Silverstar retains some silver scales about the face, but the exposed scales about his body appear to be red now.

    • Silverstar is shackled by heavy conventional locks. However the shackles are warded somehow because only those carrying at least one key can approach him. I believe all of them to be indestructible. This is not the first time I have seen this method used.
  • The Keys
    • The key locations have been scried and located.
      • One is located in the ruins of Buramor

      • One is held tight in the armory in the camp.

      • One is carried on the High Shaman
  • Ritual Platforms
    • There are two ritual platforms in the mountains. A smaller one that the head shaman seems to access daily that is close by. A second, much larger one, is quite a distance away near a vast ravine. The bodies are piled high here and there is evidence of a lake’s worth of blood everywhere. I believe that one of these rituals is keeping Silverstar subdued. I don’t know which one.

    • The High Shaman leaves in the late morning for the northern ritual platform not far from the water supply and he always returns between 2-4pm. He has several other shamans with him.

    • The larger and more gorey platform seems to be filled with intense power. A great deal of it feels familiar like dragon magic but also seems incomplete and chaotic.
  • Dwarf Ruins
    • The Thirsters are accessing an uncovered dwarven ruin named Buramor. I could not gain access to the main area they are making use of. I did find an underground passage that contains more of the suppressive rune magic only far stronger. A number of their kobold pets loiter in these ruins. They seem to be acting as truly poor guards. The rune magic will not only suppress all magic but any creature of a certain power level will be rendered completely inert.
  • Totems
    • Three totems were found. They suppress all travel abilities of any kind within a certain radius. However these are obfuscated and linked to each other somehow. Each totem is protecting one of the others. They would have to be brought down in a certain order to remove them from the mountains. I have no way to discern which is which.


Panic,
Ducal Knight of Throncryf
Rose Crusade
 
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Panic,

I'll look into the totems.

Were the totems guarded in any way, or were they relatively solitary due to the fact that they're protected by their own enchantment?

Safe Travels,
Banradi Irani Moduri Newberry
Waymaker
 
One totem is just inside the valley itself, another is close to the road leading to the valley, and the third is near the larger of the two ritual platforms.

While not guarded directly both totems outside the valley are within the patrol paths of the Thirster scouts. The one closest to the ritual platform could be observed by said platform but at a distance. It was not difficult to approach any of these but I could not stay too long at any of them while I examined them.

Panic
 
Panic,

Do we need to worry about any teams we take out, resurrecting and spoiling our plans?

Casan Moreaux
Order of the Emerald Flame
 
Casan,

While I don't know if it is either the corrosive blood energy, the travel-blocking wards, or the disruptive rune magic coating the whole of the mountains, any extended circles fall apart in no time at all. Regardless of where I tested this effect in the mountains it was always true. I feel it is safe to say they cannot resurrect anywhere nearby.

Panic
 
Sir Panic-

Thank you for all of this information, I hope that you can confirm or clarify a few things for us.

1. Entrance to the Thirster Valley/Camp: It appears from your report there is a Supply Depot a third of the way up the trail to the valley and past that Supply Depot there are two entrances to the camp, the Gates and at the Armory. Presumably this means that we will need to take out the Supply Depot and then at least one entrance.
a. Am I correct that these guards can be taken out any time after 1:00 pm without worrying they will be replaced?
b. The Gate location sounds like it would be a place to station some troops during the final jailbreak to cut off reinforcements, was that what you intended to indicate?​

2. Third Entrance: You indicate that this entrance reaches the Ritual Platform used by the High Shaman daily. Is this the only way to that Ritual Platform or can it be reached from the other side?

3. Blood shipments: Are you able to determine how long the elite team takes to return if there is a problem with a blood shipment? Is this a situation where they will be gone for long enough for us to rescue Jared without them returning or a situation where we can get the jump on an elite team away from the rest of the camp?

4. Scout Patrols: Do you believe that eliminating one or more of the scout patrols before the 1:00 P.M. changeover would result in a change in the afternoon deployment?

5. Guards in General: When not on duty where are the guards in relation to the rest of the camp? Will off-duty Guards be an issue when the jailbreak occurs?

6. Ritual Platforms: I presume these are places where the Shaman performs some form of exotic magic and not just Circles of Power. Do you have any insight into what protects the shaman while the rituals on ongoing?

7. Spider-Rune Cave: It looks like this would be another way into the camp, in addition to the three other entrances, if an entrance with some drawbacks. Does it appear to you that the Runes in this cave are weaker than the Runes in Buramor? I ask because it might be useful to have multiple forces come at the camp from different directions.

8. River: Is the Ritual Platform near the River the one that is farther from the camp?

9. Silverstar and the Keys:
a. Do we need all three Keys?
b. Do the Key appear to be for the locks?​

10. Rituals
a. Any insight into what will happen to Jared if the ritual keeping him subdued does not occur?
b. Any idea what the other ritual might do?​

I am sure that much of our planning will need to occur on the fly but I hope you can fill in some blanks to give us a greater chance to succeed.

Travel Safely,

Sir Mathis of the Order of the Emerald Flame
Knight to his Majesty Lycergis, King of Dragonreach
 
I'm happy to provide answers to your questions. However I will provide clarity when the full map I commissioned is ready. I will present it to you when we gather along with a bit more detail on certain topics I can better explain in person.

1. Entrance to the Thirster Valley/Camp: It appears from your report there is a Supply Depot a third of the way up the trail to the valley and past that Supply Depot there are two entrances to the camp, the Gates and at the Armory. Presumably this means that we will need to take out the Supply Depot and then at least one entrance.
a. Am I correct that these guards can be taken out any time after 1:00 pm without worrying they will be replaced?​
-Correct, the schedule will not outright replace the guards until 1am. However that does not mean it would go unnoticed forever. For example if the valley does not get the blood shipment by noon from the supply depot they will wait two hours before dispatching the elite troops through the front/main gate. Meaning a gate cleared of guards at 1pm would be noticed by 2pm, after 2 nothing else is scheduled and the chance of discovery drops significantly. That said the gates are hardly accessed for much else and they are nearly cut off from the main floor of the valley by stone pillars, the rock slide ramp out of the valley, and even the stone armory.
b. The Gate location sounds like it would be a place to station some troops during the final jailbreak to cut off reinforcements, was that what you intended to indicate?​
-That is only half correct. I was suggesting there is an opportunity from the main gate to assassinate sleeping reinforcements. This point will be better explained by the illustrated map.

2. Third Entrance: You indicate that this entrance reaches the Ritual Platform used by the High Shaman daily. Is this the only way to that Ritual Platform or can it be reached from the other side?
-It took some time but yes I found a path through the mountains to circle around the valley to the east to gain access to the ritual platform closest to the valley. The path is safe enough to travel but there are a number of creatures I faced there.

3. Blood shipments: Are you able to determine how long the elite team takes to return if there is a problem with a blood shipment? Is this a situation where they will be gone for long enough for us to rescue Jared without them returning or a situation where we can get the jump on an elite team away from the rest of the camp?
-The few times one of the elite teams had to leave they left the Shieldbearer mountains entirely. At least a day.

4. Scout Patrols: Do you believe that eliminating one or more of the scout patrols before the 1:00 P.M. changeover would result in a change in the afternoon deployment?
-Yes, but I believe it would be a delayed action of 1-2 hours. The scouts are deployed in a configuration that suggests they are there to keep watch for a slow moving invasion force, not guerilla-style tactical groups. I am unaware of any messaging abilities they may have to raise an alarm. I do not believe the scouting parties contain any Thristers of powerful skill or abilities. Thus I can only conclude the scouting parties are intended to be more like disposable alarms than what one might think of when hearing the word "scout".

5. Guards in General: When not on duty where are the guards in relation to the rest of the camp? Will off-duty Guards be an issue when the jailbreak occurs?
-Again best illustrated by the map. The main force of reserve troops live in tents starting on the west wall of the valley and fills toward the center. Most of them spend time sleeping here to maintain these long workshifts. This area is not far from the wall where Silverstar is chained.

6. Ritual Platforms: I presume these are places where the Shaman performs some form of exotic magic and not just Circles of Power. Do you have any insight into what protects the shaman while the rituals on ongoing?
-Multiple shamans are present and the occasional light guard. In the case of the larger of the two platforms a handful of odd creatures were randomly present that I couldn't identify. If there are magical defences in place for a direct assault I could not test them. I have much more to say on these areas.

7. Spider-Rune Cave: It looks like this would be another way into the camp, in addition to the three other entrances, if an entrance with some drawbacks. Does it appear to you that the Runes in this cave are weaker than the Runes in Buramor? I ask because it might be useful to have multiple forces come at the camp from different directions.
-Yes without question these runes, though powerful, are far less powerful than the ones in the Buramor ruins. In the cave they are a dangerous challenge. In the ruins they are crippling to beings of power.

8. River: Is the Ritual Platform near the River the one that is farther from the camp?
-No. A thin waterfall feeds a river that runs out of the valley. The ritual platform is up and out of the valley just north of the very top of said waterfall. The map will provide clarity here as well.

9. Silverstar and the Keys:
a. Do we need all three Keys?
-At least one key to even approach Silverstar is needed. If the mechanism is truly built as the ones I have seen before these locks can be picked but they are indestructible. If no one can pick a proper lock then all three keys will be needed to release the prisoner. Locks like these are resistant to destroy magic rituals.
b. Do the Key appear to be for the locks?
-Yes. The styles on the locks and keys match in design and I have seen this kind of warding effect in action come from both the key and lock.
​
10. Rituals
a. Any insight into what will happen to Jared if the ritual keeping him subdued does not occur?
-My expertise is in dragon magic and this blood magic is a distortion of that power in profound ways. I have theories we can discuss at length but I could not get close enough to examine the man properly. My observations are that he is not in control of himself at all. He never moves. I can therefore only conclude his restraints are there for if/when he ever becomes less subdued.
b. Any idea what the other ritual might do?
-To my eyes it's just inharmonious madness mixed with dragon power. I can't even tell if it is just one ritual taking place at a time, I strongly suspect not. I have more theories but they will be theories at best.

Panic
​
 
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